The invention relates to a device for the straightening of an article in strip formation which is out of line, particularly a textile strip to be cut along the stitch and/or along the print, with a plurality of straightening elements which are arranged transverse to the length of the strip article and can be pressed against it, and which are adjustable by a transport device along the length of the strip.
A device of this type is already known, e.g., from the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,634 which is incorporated herein by reference. In this embodiment, the straightening elements consist of wedge-shaped shoes, which are biased and mounted on a bar running transverse over the strip article, by means of which they can be lowered together and pressed against the strip article. This principle of operation however presupposes strip articles or textile strips of different thicknesses, so that the shoe-like straightening elements in lowered position find catch points on the textile strip. With a brushed material without pile, the straightening means can be lowered together, and in this position, with the material in check, can be moved in their discharge direction. When there is a distortion, the straightening elements are laid one after the other against the adjacent transverse borders of the layer and thus cause a straightening of the strip in that area, in order to be able to make the separation cut straight along the stitch.
If however the strip article which is to be straightened has a constant thickness, the preceding straightening device cannot be used, since there are then no contact points for such shoe-like straightening elements. This is the case for example with blankets woven by the Jacquard principle, if these blankets must be cut, or also with so-called single blankets, in which the print or the pattern does not run at right angles to the web, since the article has been drawn out of line by the after-treatment. Similar considerations arise with materials from which dust rags, cleaning rags, bedsheets and so forth are to be cut. All of these materials, until this time, had to be cut manually, if an accurate separation edge was to be achieved.